SHE’s one of our most celebrated actresses but no matter how reluctant she is about the subject – now aged as she is in her 70s – Dame Helen Mirren remains a sex symbol.

Dame Helen Mirren - who starred in 2003's Calendar Girls - is now a Pirelli girl

So much so that she is about to gain the notoriety of being a Pirelli girl, no less. Dame Helen, 71, is set to feature alongside younger stars in next year’s iconic Pirelli Calendar.

But there is also another famous British screen siren now in her seventies – Charlotte Rampling, 70. Other famous actresses, firmly in their middle age, will include Kate Winslet, 40, Nicole Kidman, 49, Julianne Moore, 55, Uma Thurman, 46, and Penelope Cruz, 42.

Pirelli chose A-list actresses rather than models – bar one.

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Dame Helen, 71, is set to feature alongside younger stars in next year's iconic Pirelli Calendar

And like this year’s groundbreaker, the women are clothed.

The renowned calendar has been shot in five locations for 2017: Berlin, London, Los Angeles, Le Touquet and New York. But for Dame Helen, who has been a sex symbol since shooting to stardom in the Sixties, the label is one that has gradually become more irritating.

She recently explained: “I’ve always been tired of being called sexy. It’s annoying and irritating – I just have to put up with it.”